IT'S official - Limerick people are not racist. An international white-supremacist group, NSRUS, have disbanded their local branch due to the lack of support.

NSRUS, whose motto "Say no to black Ireland" was distributed around the People's Park earlier this year, have withdrawn from Limerick due to the poor response to their racist cause.

The Limerick-based group had been receiving support from fascist groups in the US, who now describe the response to them in Ireland as "pitiful."

Prior to the withdrawal, NSRUS's estimated three Limerick members main activities were the posting of racist stickers and the defacement of walls around the Grattan Street/John Street area of the city.

According to a spokesperson for the local branch of Anti-Fascist Action, Limerick people should be proud of its low level of participation in the controversial group.

Last month, a white-supremacist claiming to represent NSRUS suggested that fellow-racists should confront and take pictures of people associated with asylum seekers in Limerick.

Responding to these comments, Sr Ann Scully of Limerick's Justice and Mercy Office said that she was very concerned about it, but that Limerick was not an especially racist place.

"This has nothing to do with Limerick - racists are probably no more active here than anywhere else," she said.

RACISTS seem to be comparatively thin on the ground in the Mid-West. So thin, in fact, that a well-organised Limerick white supremacist group has been disbanded by it members - all three of them. Reason: lack of public support.

The news has been greeted with predicable glee. The local branch of the Anti-Fascist Action organisation says Limerick people should be proud of the low level of participation. Moreover, Peter O'Mahoney, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council is on record as saying: "Limerick has been a good model of how to deal constructively with asylum-seekers and the wider immigrant community."

Such words are important. Limerick suffers more than its fair share of bad publicity. The vast majority of the people of the city and county are welcoming towards strangers in our midst. The encouragement offered by some of the stature of Mr O'Mahony will make the welcoming even warmer.

But we must beware of complacency. Overt racism, such as swastika graffiti and personal violence, is mercifully rare but anecdotal evidence suggests that lower-level racism is a growing danger. Black people here far from immune from verbal abuse, whether in the form of a shouted taunt or a muttering under the breath.

The problem is ignorance. The answer is education. The responsibility lies not just with "them" - the State, teachers, religious and other leaders - but with all citizens, most especially parents.